http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/210/perfect-evidence
Listen to the show Perfect Evidence from This American Life available via the above link (below is a summary):
After a decade in which DNA evidence has freed over 100 people nationwide, it's become clear that DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors. In this show, we look at what DNA has revealed to us: how police get innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit and how they get witnesses to pin crimes on innocent people. There have always been suspicions that these kinds of things take place. With DNA, there's finally irrefutable proof.
What are your thoughts?
After looking through the Innocence Projects and listening to these two different cases of people being wrongfully convicted, it complimented by beliefs about the justice system. I’ve read and been aware of how many corrupt cops or lawyers there are out there, but have also read about how many ‘good’ cops, lawyers, etc. are out there. After listening to Act 1 with Omar and his friends and then Act 2 about the 14-year old boy who almost even believed he killed his sister, anger rose within me as well as sympathy for these people. Wrongfully convicting people can happen so easily, especially when the media becomes involved and influences so many people within the nation. I find myself frustrated and wanting to be able to talk to the jury members, especially the ones who are going with their correct gut feelings about the innocence of the defendants, and influence them to remain with their not guilty verdict. I also wanted to make the cops interrogating the 14-year old boy about what they were doing was wrong and that if they want to discover the truth, they should never force it. It’s also frustrating knowing that the prosecuting attorney for Omar’s case sat there lying and got away with it, which does happen all the time.
Putting aside my frustration with the people who should just not enter into the justice system for their careers, I also felt positive as well after listening to this. I was left with hope that there are good people out there, such as the attorney who freed Omar and his friends, who are aware of what our Founding Fathers meant through the constitution and defining our rights to freedom. I’m thankful and proud of America’s justice system in this way and am aware that it is not the system that is corrupt, but the people handling the system that make it seem corrupt. With the right people, the right evidence, and hope that truth and justice will prevail; the court system can begin to follow the foundation that America was built on, freedom.
After listening to both acts my thoughts were based around curiosity, dis-belief, and disgust. The first comment about cancer patients and the common mistake of diagnosis really interested me. I understand that statistically this might not happen often, however, with the increasing number for cancer the mistakes increase as well. The introduction also stated that the use of DNA has increased the number of cases that get reevaluated, with and without DNA. In this class we have watched so many movies based on stories of injustice, and it really opened my eyes to how often it happens. But the true shocker was the two acts with stories based on the injustice of police during interrogation.
The first story, rabbits and hawks, is based on tricks and manipulation. The story was sold to society by the use of racial tactics and suspects with a record. A white women being raped and killed in a majority black neighborhood by a group of teens make a great headline. It also puts a large amount of pressure on police to pin a suspect or in this case a group of suspects. All the suspects went through a source of morally wrongful interrogation, one was tied up and slapped around, another tricked to sign a confession, and one was offered lesser charges to turn against his friends. When physical evidence is low police have higher pressure. And personally in these cases I somewhat feel that the police at many points genuinely think that they have the perpetrator. One of the individuals in this case really hit home to me, Calvin. At age fourteen he was put as a perpetrator of this case. He was interrogated to the point on low mental stability and then offered a way out. He was to sign a contract and he could go home to his mother. After signing that contract he was placed into solitary confinement. TAL also stated those that are in prison for rape live an abnormally harsh life in prison. The inmates see women and sex as something vital that they miss and inmates who abused that privilege prior are seen in a different light. Fifteen years later the truth was revealed. However, these men will never live the life they would have before this incident.
The second act was based on a fourteen year old being tricked to think that he killed his sister. The police first built a relationship with the boy by introducing the use of a lie detector test. It was almost as he sold the test to the boy as the main point of the conversation and then got him to truly believe he failed a extremely correct test, therefore, he must of done the crime. The recording had clips of a younger man bursting into tears confessing that he didn’t remember doing what he had done. The fact that the police did this to an adolescent is corrupt. While watching this clip my expression and emotions were attached to feeling bad for him. This part of the clip also introduced that parents are somewhat tricked to believe it is not accepted or not needed for them to attend the interrogation. If I had to give any parent advise after hearing this clip, I would tell them to sit in on the interrogation weather they think their child is competent or not. These stories overall just make me feel like the world is a bad place to live. People are corrupt and they are trained to be that way. Society puts pressures that turn into negative reactions. It also showed me how situational every case is and detail is what matters. It also made me curious about how these police are treated when the truth comes out. I know they are protected under law, however, who could live with themselves.
Terms: evidence, perpetrator, suspect, interrogation, law, injustice, confession, inmate, prison, DNA, lie detector test, competency,
I think that there should have to be DNA evidence or good-quality surveillance camera evidence for serious cases that involve someone spending years & years in prison or receiving the death penalty. Since we know there are so many possible mistakes with eyewitness identification and forensic science, it seems unfair to base a verdict off of information that could be tainted so easily. The Innocent Project Website lists the following as reasons why DNA testing is so important: eyewitness identification, invalid or improper forensic science, false convictions, government misconduct, informants or snitchers, and bad lawyering. All of those factors could be present in any combination or proportion in any given case. No system is perfect, but the Innocence Project hopes to make some changes to it to prevent as many wrongful convictions before they happen.
Some of the changes that make a lot of sense to me are electronically recording all interrogations and also allowing prisoners to apply for post-conviction DNA testing. However, recording interrogations still does not ensure that there are not things going on before or after the recording that should not be happening like intimidation by getting physically violent with suspects or threatening them. It also does not prevent police officers framing the suspect by filling the case with unknown details to make it seem like it was that suspect or offering deals prior to the interrogation. Along with the responsibility of enforcing order & providing protection, police officers also have the opportunity to misuse a lot of their power. It's even easier for them to misuse their power when most people place their trust in officers simply because of their role & are obedient for the same reason. People in positions of authority have a lot of control over others due to the psychological mindset most people have about following rules and pleasing people in authority whether it be a parent, teacher, or police officer. Therefore, even by using sly tactics like leading questions, suggesting leniency, keeping them in the room for a long time, or making them think they have to sign papers, police officers are able to extract confessions from innocent people & get other witnesses to pin crimes on innocent people. Sometimes they make 'deals' with people promising for them to walk free or get the better end of the deal as long as they do what the officers want (quid pro quo strategy). Other times, they lie and say they'll make those deals, but don't follow through with it, like the man discusses in the Perfect Evidence TAL who was told if he signed the confession, he would get to leave but instead, he was locked up.
Obviously not all police officers are corrupt, prejudicial or out to get certain people. It's understandable that police officers want to solve crimes, so it's understandable that they might jump to conclusions or put a lot of effort into convicting someone if that seems to be the only option at that point in the investigation of the case. Although they might have good intentions, they are still fallible, which might be hard to see amidst everything else going on in a case. Officers are just as susceptible to informational influence that can alter their cognition about the case or the suspect(s) as the jurors evaluating a case in court. DNA evidence has scientifically proven many mistakes that have been made along different points in different cases which has really opened the eyes of the public. Consequently, judges & prosecutors are now more willing to reconsider cases, even if no DNA evidence is available. So even though DNA evidence has brought a lot of "disturbing police procedures" and a shmorgishborg of mistakes to the light, it has also brought many changes in the system that needed to be addressed.
terms: eyewitness identification, forensic psychology, false convictions, intimidation, physical violence, threatening, quid pro quo, obedience & authority, leading questions, suggesting leniency, lying, motivation, informational influence, cognition
After listening to the show Perfect Evidence from This American Life, there are many thoughts running through my head pertaining to law enforcement and the way that the justice system works. This show revealed that wrongful convictions truly do occur. It proved that we are sending innocent people to prison for the crimes that other people have committed. In reality, it is a very sad thing to think about, and I hope that someday we can make the necessary reforms to ensure that only real perpetrators are being locked up.
Something that shocked me from listening to this show was how corrupt our legal system and law enforcement can be. For instance, the first act of the show discussed a rape and murder case that sent four young black men to prison. What was so corrupt about this was that the men were innocent, but the police coerced them into signing confessions so that they could pin the crime on someone. After attaining the false confessions, the men were imprisoned, even though none of their DNA matched up to the evidence found at the crime scene. This crucial DNA evidence was what later helped exonerate these innocent men from prison. It is just unreal to me that these Chicago cops would have done anything in their power to get confession statements from these boys, regardless of if the means of doing it were logical or not. It is also crazy to me that these cops who put these men away for so long and who are refusing to speak to the press about it today have not received any ramifications for their wrongdoings. This, to me, seems as though these law enforcers have been given too much power and are being exempted from how the law is supposed to work. I feel as though they should be punished for purposely attaining false confessions and going through the whole trial system under the pretenses that these men were guilty.
The ways in which cops attain confessions was another topic that was discussed throughout the show. We have read a little bit about this in our textbook and have gone over it in class, but it still shocks me every time I learn more about it. It seems completely unfair to me that cops have the ability to tell lies during the interrogation, as long as they are not making any promises to the person being interrogated regarding their sentence or outcome. This means that cops and detectives can make up information about evidence at the crime scene and can as the person being interrogated leading questions to make the person feel as though the cops have already pinned the crime on them and that they are guilty. Doing this can push the person into giving a confession. These confessions, though, are usually given under extreme stress, which makes me truly wonder how many people were coerced by cops to admit to something that is not at all true. All of this information makes me really question whether or not procedures like this that involve leading questions should be legal when trying to attain a confession.
Although DNA evidence is helping to exonerate multiple people that have been in prison for a very long time for crimes they did not commit, I feel as though there should be more compensation given to the exonerated people than what the government allows. Apparently they are given a certain amount of money per year that they wrongfully spent in prison, but personally I do not feel like that is enough. Regardless of how much money they are paid, they can never get back the years of their life that were stolen from them. They can never go back and relive those moments that they were stripped of. Also, after they are freed from prison, most of them have a hard time picking back up where they left off. Many of them don’t have any money and don’t have many options in terms of jobs and housing. This is a very sad reality, and it makes me wish that the people we put in charge of deciding whether or not a person is innocent or guilty would do a better job at dealing with hard evidence instead of just circumstantial events.
All of this information is very controversial, and it makes me have second thoughts about how our legal system works. For the most part, we only lock up true perpetrators, but how can we stop locking up innocent people? What can we do to fix the corrupt process that put them away, and how can we provide them with appropriate compensation after they have been exonerated? I definitely think that we have a long way to go in terms of perfecting the justice system, but I do hope that one day we can be positive and sure that there are no innocent people being convicted and sent to prison for crimes that they did not commit.
Terms: law enforcement, justice system, wrongful conviction, innocent, prison, crime, perpetrator, corruption, legal system, false confession, evidence, DNA, crime scene, exoneration, trial, guilty, interrogation, sentence, leading questions, conviction
Before I even read about the Innocence Project or listened to the radio show, I had learned about the importance of DNA evidence in criminal cases and how it can assist in naming suspects in a crime; although, I did not realize how recent the use of DNA evidence was. Some interesting information that I took away from the reading and the show was the fact that 1300 criminals are matched to crimes a year due to DNA, which really shows how powerful DNA evidence is in a crime, so powerful that prosecutors and judges are willing to look at cases with no form of DNA evidence due to the number of cases that have actually been overturned because of it!!
After listening to the show, my opinions and beliefs about the criminal justice system have been affirmed. Just because people have been convicted and sentenced to prison, does not mean that every one of those individuals actually committed the crime. This assignment has disappointed me in the way in which so many innocent people are serving time behind bars for crimes that they did not commit. After listening to the personal stories of the men who had been wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of a woman, my heart went out to them. The dangerous nature of prison is no place for an innocent individual to be.
I think the most shocking part about what I have read and heard while doing this assignment was the disturbing police practices used to get innocent people to confess to crimes that they did not commit. For instance, the way in which the police got the men to confess to the rape and murder and even had them sign confessions knowing that they had not tried every avenue to make sure these men were the same men who committed the crime!
Another interesting part about the case of the rape and murder of the medical student was how much the media shaped the public’s view of the men. The media used words such as “barbaric” to describe the men; therefore, sadly enough the men didn’t even have a fighting chance to plead their case in front of the public who had pictured them in such a negative light due to the media’s portrayal of them.
Overall, I am glad that topics such as this are openly talked about so that others may see the same hole in the criminal justice system. I am so glad that there are things out there such as the Innocence Project to assist the innocent men and women in fighting for their freedom. This assignment was very interesting and it definitely sparked my interest to learn more about this particular topic!
The Perfect Evidence TAL discussed two different cases involving individuals that were charged and later exonerated. One of the cases, we actually watched in class and learned that four men were charged with a case and later proven innocent after fifteen years in prison. In the case of these individuals they had to constantly push to get anyone to look at their case. One of the individuals even had to figure out precisely which area they would need to go with to prove their innocence. In this case, the testimony of an analyst. This particular case actually made me fairly sad and disappointed in the justice system.
The police officers coerced confessions out of the individuals and were not engaging in the best interrogation practices. These confessions were based around a profile created at the beginning of the trial by a profiler. This shows that police need to make sure that they are cognizant of the fact that a profile of the criminal is more like an educated guess than actual fact. These police officers only looked at these four individuals after receiving the profile rather than looking at other options. They developed tunnel vision.
The case of the fourteen-year old boy disturbed me quite a bit. Yes, the officers were technically following the rules when they interrogated the boy. However, they weren’t necessarily ethical. The parents should not have been lied to about where their son was. They believed that he was receiving counseling, as he should have been after the death of his sister. Instead, he was interrogated for an extended period of time. The boy was eventually tricked into believing that he may have killed his sister and just doesn’t remember it. In the case of the trial, the context of his interrogation should have been used rather than just the confession.
After the negative thoughts I was experiencing from the Perfect Evidence TAL, it was nice to read about the Innocence Project. Innocence projects take the cases of convicted individuals and conduct DNA testing to determine whether the men are innocent or not. It was interesting to read that in many cases, the DNA tests still prove the men guilty. However, it is good to know that this is out there for individuals that were wrongly convicted. However, DNA testing still should be used in everyday cases rather than just old cases. Interrogations also should be video taped to prevent coerced confessions like in the two cases from the TAL. Officers should not have a reason to not have interrogations video taped because no matter how bad the crime, the interrogations should still be performed in an ethical manner. At least DNA testing is now available and can hopefully used to prevent innocent individuals being convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Terms Used: Convicted, Exonerated, Confession, Interrogation, Profiler, Criminal, Officers, Innocent Projects, DNA Testing, Wrongful Conviction
My opinion involving the justice system has changed in the last couple weeks. I recently read the book "Picking Cotton" and I lost respect for what the justice stood for in the past.To have over 250 people released from prison and the death penalty for charges they were innocent on really upset me. I can't believe our justice system is responsible for taking that many years away from innocent men. And then after listening to the cases in this scenario did not help my thinking either. It's really sad for every person involved.
I do feel extremely happy for the men to get their freedom back because if DNA wasn't discovered they would spend the rest of their lives within prison walls. I believe DNA is the best evidence in any case because if DNA proves you were there then you most definitely were there because everybody has different DNA. The part that really gets to me is that an innocent man is serving time for something he did not do and the guilty man is out roaming the streets putting more people in danger. To me that makes absolutely no sense and in some cases the guilty person may never be found.
During the radio show and the example used it said that the police lied to the 14 year old boy about finding evidence in his room. I find the ethically and morally wrong. Those police should be suspended or something because they guilted the boy into admitting to killing his sister even though DNA proved he was not the killer. I do not think police should be able to lie because the person they are interviewing is not suppose to be lying so it's pretty hypocritical for them to be able too. Some policemen have also tricked young people into false convictions. They have told the young people they if they signed that piece of paper they would get to go home. But, what really happen was they were locked up. They never got to go home.
After listening to the radio show and reading the Innocent project it really makes me wondering about who we have for a law enforcement. I think if more people were aware of what was going on and how many innocent people have lost many years in their lives things would change. We just need to hope less and less people are wrongfully convicted every year.
Terms: wrongful conviction, guilty, justice system, innocent, DNA evidence, prison
Though I have always known that there are innocent people in prison, I have never thought about it in so much detail until listening to Perfect Evidence, an episode of This American Life, and reading about The Innocence Project. I have never been able to hear and experience the emotion of the people that have been convicted of a crime that they truly did not commit. It is simply amazing that circumstantial evidence alone can lead to someone’s conviction, without a trace of biological evidence, such as DNA. Luckily, this is where The Innocence Project kicks in and they are able to help exonerate many innocent inmates.
The story about the four young black men that were sent to prison for allegedly rape and murdering a young woman shows exactly how corrupt our legal system can be. We like to think that we can trust our legal system to provide us with fair treatment, and not cheat us out of what is ours for the benefit of themselves, but that is exactly what happened to these men. Though innocent, these four men were compelled to sign false confessions. They were told that a quick signature would enable them to go home. However, they did not get to go home; they were locked up instead. None of the DNA from the crime scene matched those that were convicted of the crime, and that is what eventually led to their exoneration. I was very happy to know that their freedom was eventually given back to them, but I’m very disappointed in our justice system that they were convicted in the first place. If it weren’t for DNA testing’s upcoming, those men would have been incarcerated for the rest of their lives.
The second story from Perfect Evidence explained how a fourteen year old boy was lied to and eventually tricked into confessing to the murder of his sister. The police were very vindictive throughout the entire process and it upset a lot of people. They told the boy that they found evidence in his room and told his parents that he was just at counseling. This was a perfect excuse, because he probably should have been at counseling due to the fact that his sister had been killed. Instead he was whisked away to the police station, being interrogated for hours until he finally confessed under pressure. The ethics and morality of this case are completely wrong and unacceptable. The sad truth is that this happens all of the time, especially when there is no direct DNA linking suspects to crimes. Fortunately, DNA saved the day once again and the boy was proven innocent. I understand why police will sometimes lie to suspects. It usually helps lead to confessions and then to convictions. However, I do not agree with the fact that the police will interrogate the suspects so much that they falsely confess under pressure. It is hard to take a confession back, even if it is false.
I think that the Innocence Project is an awesome idea. The big idea is that it helps innocent people get out of prison, but it also helps to prove that guilty people belong there when DNA wasn’t used to convict them. Whether the DNA tested proves guilt or innocence, it gives closure to everyone involved, and that is an important part of the project as well.
Listening to Perfect Evidence, as well as reading Picking Cotton, has changed my mind on the justice system tremendously. It’s very hard to accept the fact that there are innocent people in prison due to inefficient evidence. It’s even harder to believe that innocent people have been convicted because of forced, false confessions. Not to mention, when innocent people are thrown in jail for crimes they truly did not commit, the actual perpetrator is running free. Luckily, DNA testing is used whenever possible now in order to prevent sending innocent people to jail. It’s important that these topics are overtly discussed because everyone should know about the dark side of the criminal justice system and realize that justice isn’t always served.
Terms: conviction, perpetrator, witness, murder, criminal justice system, police, innocent, guilty, conviction, DNA, interrogation, prison, evidence.
The past few weeks of what we have been working on gives us the idea of how the new idea of DNA helps get those who have been wrongly convicted out of prison. After listening to this clip and watching the video from class last week about this same class, it honestly just makes you sick as to how police work in the way they do in order to put those in prison for people who didn't commit the crime. For me being a Criminology major, I've always been interested in this type of work, and it's awful hearing about these different cases and how they wrongfully convicted these people. This criminal justice system is supposed to be trustworthy in getting justice for those who are the victims, but getting justice in the correct way and not making up something.
The clip about the four teenagers who were convicted of killing the medical student was very shocking to me last week when we watched it during class and even hearing more about it now. The clip stated that out of the over 200 murders that happened in Chicago that year, this case was one of them that caused the most media attention. I believe that the police had more stress to find those who committed so they just picked boys who had a previous criminal record and lived around the area. The way that the police tortured the teenager just to get him to confess and how they made the other teenage boy sign a paper thinking he was going to leave, and in fact he would be spending the next years of his life in prison. I believe that this case showed how corrupt our law enforcement can be. Even when they had the DNA evidence that proved that they didn't do it, they almost still didn't get out of prison. I think it's horrible how we are supposed to trust the police when they go out and do something like this. I understand that this isn't how it is in every single case, but one case is too many for this to be happening. Thanks to the Innocence Project and the retesting of DNA, that's what happened for these men to prove that their DNA wasn't their at the scene. The guys that the DNA was found even committed to the crime later on.
The clip about the little boy who was they forced a confession out of him for killing his 12 year old sister is just another disturbing story. Just as they talk about in the clip, the police should have done more investigating instead of just going straight to the boy and making him actually believe that he was the one who killed his sister. It's crazy the different techniques that the police use in order to get a confession, but I think that before they start randomly going out and accusing people of crime, they need to just investigate more. I understand that it might take away some of their time when there are other things going on, but it's better to convict the right person rather than wrongly convict an innocent person. The guy in the video also says that he doesn't believe that the police are corrupt and they just need to investigate more. I disagree with the corrupt statement because out of a bunch of the cases that i've heard, the police can be corrupt even if people don't want to believe that or not. At the end of the day, these law enforcement agencies and the police that work for them need to get their act straight. It's for people who like me who are interested in going into law enforcement see how these cops can be, and I don't want a stereotype that says I'm corrupt just because these other cops can be. We are supposed to trust our law enforcement, and they have to make that happen.
terms used: law enforcement, police, DNA, innocent, criminal justice system, criminal record, evidence, confess, Innocence Project, investigation.
When I first read the book, Picking Cotton, it amazed me how an innocent person could be punished so horribly for something they did not do. Then after reading The Innocence Project and hearing Perfect Evidence from This American Life, it really opened my eyes to how many people are in the same circumstance that Ronald Cotton was in. I cannot imagine how pissed off I would be if I was wrongfully convicted of a crime. The fact that innocent people are now getting out of prison because of DNA testing makes me happy.
One of the first things I thought was interesting that TAL said was that, not only is DNA testing helping with wrongful convictions, but also wrongful diagnoses of cancer. The fact that something so simple, like testing someone’s DNA, can be helpful on so many levels makes it one of the best discoveries so far, in my opinion.
While listening to TAL, I learned a lot about different cases that have used DNA to overturn wrongful convictions, or some that have used DNA to seal the deal on convicting the correct guilty suspect. I think it is unbelievable seeing the number of innocent people that were and still are behind bars. Having to spend years in prison, locked up for something they did not do, is really upsetting. I am happy to hear about The Innocence Project and everything that is being done to keep the innocent out of jail.
I also thought it was a little interesting to learn about how DNA testing works. It was cool to hear about the DNA database and exactly how many people show up there. I think it’s helpful to be able to plug in an anonymous piece of DNA and be able to match it to the culprit without having to look around for them.
Besides people being wrong convicted, I was amazed to hear about the ways this takes place. When TAL was talking about what the police officers do just to be able to solve their case is sometimes ridiculous. The amount of police brutality that takes place to convict someone is unnecessary. The ways some police officers handle themselves: by using trickery, manipulation, and cutting deals, should not be allowed. The fact that DNA testing is opening the public’s eyes to these tactics adds another positive to DNA.
The lawyers and other people fighting for the innocent people locked up shows how we still have good people in the world. The fact that some people just refuse to give up fighting for other people’s rights, especially by using tools like DNA testing, helps restore some faith in humanity.
Terms: DNA testing, wrongful convictions/diagnoses, guilty, suspect, The Innocence Project, DNA database, police brutality
DNA evidence has been crucial in the exoneration of over 300 innocent people since the 1980s. And the majority of these have come from the works of the Innocence Project. The Innocence Project is designed to help free the wrongly convicted by using DNA evidence to prove that they were not the perpetrator of certain crimes, it also helps these men and women get back out into society after having often served years in Prison. For this blog post I had to listen to an episode of This American Life. In this episode they talked about two cases, one in which four men were convicted of rape and murder in Chicago and the other about a 14 year old boy that nearly came to believe he had killed his sister.
The first part, about a rape and murder in Chicago was really interesting because it was the same story we had just watched in class. Four young black men were convinced to signed statements of guilt after experiencing improper interrogation. The men convicted made claims of abuse by police and that the police knowingly led a boy with a learning disability to believe that he could go free by signing a confession. Both of these incidences point to corruption in the legal system. That is further aided by the manner in which these young men were chosen by the police to be wrongly arrested and tried for a crime. The four boys accused, framed, and found guilty for this heinous crime were selected based off of a crude profile by a professional combined with the neighborhood where they lived. The young men were then beaten and lied to until they agreed to sign statements of guilt. The crucial aspect of this case was DNA evidence found in semen at the crime scene. Throughout the trial of these men it was known to the police and prosecution that none of them matched the trait found with the semen, that the person would be an O secretor. Even with this knowledge the young men were prosecuted and convicted. I wasn’t until fifteen years late that they would be able to petition for DNA and be exonerated from their sentences.
The other case is that of a 14 year old boy accused of murdering his sister. The interrogation of this child was taped and in them you can hear the boy coming to believe that he had killed his sister. Throughout his interrogation the police accused him of the act and went on to lie about evidence, such as, blood being found in his room. The mental capacity of an adolescent is not that of an adult, making them easier to influence and force into false confessions. Even when the boy would become hysterical the police would bombard him with lies in hopes of getting him to confess to a crime he didn’t commit.
Unfortunately these are the examples of police work that are often portrayed to the public. There is no denying that there are corrupt and improper techniques and officers of the law. But it is my belief that overall they are there to help foster safety to the people and not condemn the innocent to long jail sentences.
The United States, home of the free and the land of the brave. This saying refers to the United States historically having to fight for its people’s freedom from threats outside its borders. Many people honor, respect, and are knowledgeable about this saying. What many people are not educated about however is the fight that many have had to endure from within America itself.
When viewing a police officer most people would and should feel safe and protected. Police officers are supposed to be role models and heroes that provide justice and protection for the innocent. Although many police officers may be just that, there are some sadistic and or corrupt police officers that will do anything to have a suspect to convict. When that person is innocent however, the justice system becomes corrupt.
It’s disturbing to know that the United States justice system contains corrupt police officers that can and will force people into false confessions. In one case a young 14 year old boy was interrogated for 11 hours until he was forced into a false confession of killing his younger sister. The police lied to the boy’s parents stating he was in a therapeutic setting instead of an interrogation. The police also provided false trace evidence to the boy that eventually led to his false confession. Neither of these actions are illegal however the amount of time the interrogation took, the fact that the boy was a minor, and that the police made him believe he had actually committed the crime is corrupt. The talk show replayed the interrogation recording in which the boy was sobbing uncontrollable and had no recollection of murdering his sister. The expert in the talk show commented on the poor police investigation. The police he said should have investigated the crime more thoroughly to find substantial evidence that would actually link the boy to the crime.
Another disturbing case of corrupt policemen were the four boys whom were forced to confess to the rape and murder of young woman. The murder of this woman had become very popular in the media and the need for suspects became essential. After weeks of no little to any suspects, the police brought these four boys in for interrogation. The young men came from a rough background and fit the perpetrators’ profile. The boys confessed to the crime and were convicted. Many years later however, the four boys were able to take a DNA test that proved their innocence and were exonerated. So why did the young men confess? They claimed that the police expressed police brutality in which they brutally beat them into confessing. The minor boys also did not have a parent or lawyer present during the investigation. Although the police deny any such cruelty, it is disturbing to know that this police brutality may have actually occurred and most likely still occurs occasionally today.
Overall it is clearly important to educate people about the law and their rights as citizens of the United States. Had these young men known their rights, they may not have falsely confessed and could have received help. It is also important to educate police officers about false confessions and how to properly conduct interrogations. With education, situations such as these false confessions may be reduced and justice will prevail.
Terms: DNA, forensic identification, trace evidence, innocence, conviction, interrogations, false confession, exoneration, sadistic, police, justice system, police brutality, lawyer, minor, investigation, social profile, suspects
Like many, I knew that wrongful convictions occurred, however, I never really took the time to think about the negative impact it has on the people and their families and also how these convictions occur. While reading about the innocence project and listening to Perfect Evidence, my mind went to both of these thoughts.
The innocence project website put into perspective how damaging a wrongful conviction could be to a person’s life and those around them. The website depicts how hard life can be after being wrongfully convicted, such as losing all their money on legal fees, family and friends abandoning them, lost life experiences and, in some cases, no apology or compensation. In some cases exonerees also struggle to find housing and work because their records are not expunged immediately until they are fully cleared of all crimes. I never really took into consideration that, although those exonerated would be happy to be free, they are also left with the tremendous burden of trying to rebuild their lives. However, people being exonerated with DNA testing, makes me wonder how many other wrongfully convicted people are in jail but no DNA was left in order to prove their innocence. The innocence project also takes on non-DNA exoneration too; however, this is a very difficult task because most other evidence is circumstantial and not definitive enough to warrant a release. The innocence project website not only describes how wrongful convictions occur and its negative impact but it also describes preventative measures that should be taken to avoid this issue. The website discusses the issue of criminal justice members not recording interviews or preserving evidence after a case is “closed”. Members of the criminal justice system should be provided education on these preventative measures in their basic training upon entry to their job.
The This American Life episode, “Perfect Evidence”, describes using two cases of how wrongful convictions can occur by coercion, violence, and misconduct. The first act of the episode describes the Lori Roscetti case in which four youths were wrongfully convicted of her murder and rape. The act discusses how police used violence against Marcellus Braford in order to make him confess to the crime and report his friends as accomplices. The police would then go on and use blackmail as a way to achieve witnesses to testify against the three men in trial. Before class last week, I had never heard about this case, but I had heard of ones similar to this. After watching the video and listening to the broadcast, I was a little shocked at how certain police officers acted and how far they had gone in order to solve a highly publicized case. I was also a little understanding of how the police may have cracked under pressure from both the public and higher up because this case was so publicized and that no real lead had developed. However, I was disappointed in how these police officers handled this pressure and abused their power of authority over minors. This whole case, I believe, is a perfect example of what is wrong with the justice system. The system, as it stands today, is focused on statistics of how many people are convicted and released and how many cases are solved, however, this leaves a lot of room for error because sufficient time is not being spent on each case. This also lends itself to the issue that too many people are in the prison system with not enough staff to control the crime rate. With more crimes than police, efficiency is a low priority, whereas speed is a main focus. In the second act of the “Perfect Evidence” episode, a 14 year old is wrongful accused of murdering his sister and then is led to believe that he was the perpetrator of this crime. During this section of the broadcast, it was very difficult to listen to what the commentator had to say because I was focused on the young boys sobbing in the background. For a paper that I have recently written for another class, I reviewed literature concerning children being coerced and mislead during an interrogation. The results that I found were astounding in that many members of the criminal justice system understand that adults and children are at different levels of understanding and vulnerability however, most admitted to using the same tactics for both adults and children and ignoring these major differences. It is hard for me to imagine a police officer taking advantage of a young adult or child’s vulnerability, but I know that it does happen and quite often. I feel that special training should be given to all justice system members and that harsher punishment should be given to those that abuse their power and the system. I also feel that time should be spent on each case to ensure that not many mistakes, if at all, occur.
For me, wrongful convictions are something that is going to happen no matter how many changes are made to the justice system, because humans and technology are flawed and everyone makes mistakes. However, I do feel that steps can be taken to avoid reoccurring problems and corruption in the justice system.
Terms: wrongful conviction, criminal justice system, exonerated, DNA testing, circumstantial evidence, coercion, false confession, accomplice, crime rate, physical intimidation, interrogation, corruption
When listening to the Perfect Evidence TAL radio archive show discussed a lot about how in our justice system so many people believe that only the bad guys are being sent to prison but actually there are innocent people who had no knowledge of the crime that are being convicted for crimes they did not commit. It really did upset me when listening to both of the acts in the Perfect Evidence TAL radio archive shows because how cops can lie about the information that they have and just as they described it in the radio show that many people will confess since they believe they would be in trouble anyway by the way cops say they can place a person at the scene. Two good examples that the show really honed in on was the Hawks and Rabbits act and the other act Snitch.
The first act Hawks and Rabbits was an interview of a murder of a young pre-med student and four young African American boys that lived in a bad neighborhood were being convicted for the crime. In class on Thursday Nov. 29 we had watched a short video of this story as well which I thought was a little better for mainly getting the main points out and the part I believed to be the best part of the video was the interview of the police officer. Both the radio show and video that had been played in class both showed that because someone lives in a bad neighborhood and may have some criminal past seemed to be much easier to be pinned on are more likely to be convicted for a crime. Though the radio interview seemed to be able to get a little more personal such as one of the people accused were explaining how someone made the comment that he likes it cold which made any respect he had just disappear after that comment because even though he was found innocent people are still looking at him like he is actually that way. Even if a department has made a mistake and is being sued by those wrongfully convicted many police departments have yet to change even in their circumstance.
The second act Snitch was a discussion of a case over a girl being murdered and her brother was the top suspect. The cops interrogating the suspect played the good cop bad cop routine, lying about information acquired from the crime scene, and also using isolation on the young fourteen year old boy. The cops interrogated the suspect and psychologically he could not handle it very well. The boy confessed to murdering his sister and to some extent he even started believing he did it when the cops had him isolated for a good amount of time and in the tape recording he started sobbing uncontrollably; which was played after the men on the radio were done making their point.
Terms: case, suspect, good cop bad cop, crime scene, false information, interrogation, and psychological
I was shocked by the sheer volume of letters. Also, I was shocked that so many people would write these letters if they knew that DNA evidence would prove them guilty. Overall, DNA evidence is a wonderful discovery.
According to This American Life, Illinois is the state with the highest number of wrongful convictions. There were so many wrongful convictions that the Governor suspended the death penalty. This shows the power of DNA evidence.
DNA evidence not only holds more criminals responsible for their acts, it also shows that the police may not always be acting ethically. It is scary to think that the police are acting unethically, but scarier to think that they have been getting away with injustices. The narrator in the audio clip stated that
DNA testing has also shown wrongful doing by police and prosecutors. Anything that improves the accuracy and fairness of the criminal justice system is beneficial for the entire society.
The This American Life clip also noted that regular police procedures, like interrogations and investigations, have sometimes led to false confessions. One boy confessed to killing his own sister; the fourteen-year-old had been interrogated for eleven hours. Juveniles are particularly susceptible to confessing to crimes they did not commit. Sometimes, as in this case, the police try to keep the parents out of the room. Michael, the boy, was told that a polygraph would be able to tell if he was lying. According to the interviewee, Michael was “manipulated and intimidated into confessing”. The police officers did not do anything against the law.
The clip also brought up how the most convincing evidence, a confession, can be inaccurate. Through coercion, confusion, or lying, a person can be convicted of a crime he or she did not commit. This is particularly scary because, prior to DNA evidence and even with DNA evidence, confessions have been viewed as the best, most “irrefutable”, pieces of evidence. In fact, DNA has exonerated a large share of persons who confessed to committing the crime.
The power of DNA evidence can be shown by questioning persons who were wrongfully convicted, like teenagers who were imprisoned for 15 years for a crime they did not commit. This is the same crime that was shown in class. One man said that the police had physically harmed him while he was interrogated. Two others said they had been beaten or tricked into confessing. Despite police brutality and racism, the males were set free 15 years later and the actual killers were convicted.
The only potential downside to DNA evidence I can think of is that planted DNA evidence is just as convicting as legitimate evidence. Additionally, some jurors may not convict someone if no DNA evidence is available, even if corroborating evidence is sufficient and the person is truly guilty.
Terms: Dna evidence, guilty, wrongful conviction, death penalty, ethics, accuracy, criminal justice system, interrogations, investigations, false confessions, juveniles, polygraph, manipulation and intimidation, confession, exonerate, brutality, corroborating evidence, planted evidence
I don't like the idea of irrefutable proof. DNA is as accurate as we have right now, but I feel that it's strange that individuals who know they are guilty would send in to the Innocence Project and put more nails in their coffin. I feel like there is something to that. I suppose if you already have nothing to lose, then it doesn't hurt.
What are the weaknesses of a DNA based justice system. Planted evidence and corruption is the obvious one. Pamela Fish knowingly let four people she knew had exonerating blood types hang in the case presented in class that is at very best criminally negligent and at worst intentional. No amount of evidence will correct corruption, that's a totally different issue. Are there other weaknesses in DNA evidence?
Consider the case of a body found with defensive wounds and skin cells underneath the fingernails. Do the skin cells prove their source killed the victim? The gut instinct is to say yes, but that isn't the only way they could have gotten there. All the same, it could be used as incredibly compelling evidence because of the concept of irrefutable evidence, this idea that DNA is the end all be all of evidence.
This DNA leads to a suspect with nail marks on his shoulderblades. The suspect even has a bite bruise on the neck that doesn't break the skin but that matches the victim. The DNA is irrefutably the suspects. The bite mark is said to be the victims. It looks bad for the suspect. There is DNA evidence at the very least regardless of the legitimacy of forensic dentistry.
Nail marks in that particular location aren't likely to be defensive wounds because there are so many other appealing targets if the hands are free enough to go over the shoulders. Ears, cheek, neck, face. Between the DNA and the type of wound, the suspect could reasonably be excluded, but would everyone hold to that opinion. Is it a reasonable opinion to have, or an unreasonable one? Are we letting a man guilty of murder go free because of some abnormalities of defensive wounds?
If the suspect is the only individual they can link to the crime, do they feel pressure to pursue that angle even though the location of the nail marks indicate an intimate relationship rather than an aggravated murderous one. Could they use love as a motive for murder? Would they? Is it just or unjust to pursue that angle?
It's not hard to spin opinion with words. Authors do it, Media does it, film does it. In some ways, this spinning is the job of lawyers every inch as much as presenting the evidence. I hold issue with that. Emotional appeals sell well, but I question whether they should be allowed in court. I don't feel like they do anything more than cloud an already cloudy issue.
Terms:
Irrefutable
Wrongful Conviction
Corruption
Emotional Appeal
Defensive Wounds
Motive
DNA Evidence
im amazed at how many Innocent people have been put behind bars. You would like to think that cops really want to put the right person behind bars for that no one else will get hurt. A lot of what it seems to be is that when a case gets a lot of publicity the actual amount of work to be done is less they are more focused on closing the case to get the media off there back then solving the case. With some of the cases DNA testing was used but it was done wrong or thrown out or even simply ignored. When the teenagers had been accused of raping and killing a young women it was said that all the killers were o secretors and the boys who got lock up were not. That is something that just got ignored it didn't seem to matter to the DNA annalist the police the judge. That's more then just one or two cops who have any sort of hate or prejudice towards someone. In the clip it is said that some of the cops and stupid and lazy and are not doing there job or something along those lines. DNA is one of most powerful tools in the legal system today and should be looked at carefully. its someones life that hangs in the balance not just for the person on trial but also for any one who could be hurt in the future by the real killer. I am glad to see that more time and care is being taken in looking to make sure that the right person is put behind bars and to keep everyone truly safe and not scared to walk home at night.
DNA, annalist, O secretors, Prejudice, killer, legal system,
Upon reading the transcript of the This American Life radio show (Yes, I know I’m weird. I prefer to read than to listen), I was overcome with a sudden urge to fight against all that is wrong with the world. Granted, I tend to do this whenever I hear or see injustice being done, but you get the idea.
I was utterly horrified at the practices done by the police officers in the Roscetti and Crowe cases. As evidenced by their actions in both of these cases, our police force strikes me as incredibly manipulative. They lie to suspects about the evidence against them, they coerce them into revealing or confession to false information, they beat them, etc. Why is this allowed? Why is this such a seemingly common occurrence? Techniques like the good cop, bad cop approach and perhaps even the Reid Technique (though I still have some issues with that one) are sound, not immoral ways to get the suspect to confess. Manipulative, yes, but, in the case of the good cop, bad cop approach it is generally more justified.
DNA evidence showcases how beneficial research can be to society and should be used in the arguments for funding higher education so professionals can find new solutions to these problems. Without DNA Evidence, to illustrate one example, Calvin, Larry and Omar of the Roscetti case would still be in jail, or dead. Additionally, it exonerated Ronald Cotton from his crime of rape. It would also lessen the pressure placed on eyewitness memory, which has been shown to be unreliable. Mistaken eyewitnesses would not be given as much credence as DNA evidence, which would substantially decrease the numbers of wrongfully convicted people in our prison system. It could also lead to correct witness identification, as eyewitnesses would not be able to “build” their memory around the basis of a false perpetrator.
It is sickening to see how innocence does not truly guarantee freedom. Though statistically, the numbers are relatively low, when you look at the number of people sent to prison under a false conviction it is horrifying. What if that happens to me?
I think psychologists should look at other ways to interrogate suspects using effective psychological techniques that are less deplorable. Granted, I’m not a researcher, but I would venture a guess that there are other techniques besides lying that are equally effective. I am also fairly uncomfortable with the Reid Technique. The loss of control is understandable; throwing witnesses off balance is not necessarily a bad thing. Even guilty perpetrators would not just willingly admit to a crime. Social isolation can be bad and good. I don’t think groups of suspects should be together, but I think they should be allowed their attorneys. I am, however, quite against the use of exculpatory scenarios. It leads the witness to focus on the why, not if, which under the considerable duress they’re put under could be confused. And as stated earlier, I am quite against the use of lying to confuse criminals. Though, I also suppose any psychological technique could be considered manipulative, but it’d be less so.
Terms: reid technique, good cop, bad cop, loss of control, eyewitness memory, interrogation, social isolation, exculpatory scenarios.
I've learned to really like this radio show throughout class, they have a lot of interesting podcasts on the site dealing with subjects that many people wouldn't think about.
The one thing that really got me about this podcast was actually in the last 4 minutes of the show. The narrorator mentioned that although it is very possible that many of these people's lives are ruined because of faulty police work or corrupt cops or even lawyers who are only focused on winning their case instead of finding the truth. What really got to me was the mention that no one really got any punishment for their mistakes in these cases. He mentioned that one of the essential policemen in the first case ended up being mayor of the town. No one involved, policemen or lawyers usually get any punishment.
The second case that was mentioned in the podcast was about the brother who was convinced into confessing that he had murdered his sister. Now throughout the podcast you hear parts of the interview that the boy had with the police and he becomes increasingly upset and at one point they mention that he basically breaks down crying and can't stop for a couple minutes. This is an example of the power of the authority can have on people's psychological state when they are in a stressful situation. They also mentioned that police have the right to lie to any witness or suspect that they interview. This is something that I think in special cases could be used but I am starting to believe that it used way too frequently to be helpful in all cases. In a lot of cases police may feel the pressure that is put on them to find this person and bring them in so they make up evidence that they don't actually have to pressure the suspect into confessing. In this case it was remarkable that through all of the fake evidence that they put in front of the brother they slowly broke him down until they got him to kind of confess and say that if he had in fact done this horrible crime he didn't remember it. He couldn't believe that he would ever do something like this and that he was just sobbing and sobbing trying to think of how the heck this could have happened. I think if more people and maybe more judges and jury members heard and saw this sort of thing happening they may not believe confessions as quickly as normal. Human beings get worn down and they eventually may see being in that interegation room as a sort of torture that they are being put through. They start to think of themselves as the bad guy because they are being treated like the bad guy. So they then eventually convince themselves that they might have actually done this thing they are being accused of, this is the process of which false confessions come to be and it's a really sad one. This process doesn't even take into account some cops that may be corrupt and may do somethings that they are technically not allowed to do, such as physically threaten or torture their suspects into signing a confession.
The final thing I found interesting about this podcast was how they mentioned that once a jury hears that the suspect signed their name on that confession it's pretty much a death sentence to many suspects because the jury and the judge will disregard any other evidence pointing the other way. People assume that no one in their right might who was innocent would sign a confession saying that they were guilty when that's simply not true and it happens more than people would think.
Terms: guilty, witness, confession, suspects, jury, judge, punishment, lawyers, police, evidence
Its crazy to listen to this perfect evidence tape and hear how many stacks/files there are in the innocence project office. They mention that it started out years ago as two weeks worth of files and now its up to potentially 11 months.
All these cases are related to DNA and its capability of proving the innocence of those convicted. These last two blogs really make you question our justice system.
All the years they have put innocent people behind bars. Cases with no DNA evidence are even reopened to take a second look at the evidence presented and have testing done. I like how it mentions how powerful DNA evidence is. It is evidence that can't be argued with. It shows not only that the suspect may be wrong but the authority figures may be wrong.
Its very irritating to see the manipulation that authorities use on people. It find it very wrong and unfair. I can't imagine being a young kid and cohersed into confessing to a crime I didn't comit just because I was scared and undereducated by the authority figure. You learn about this in the first case about Calvin. He was 14 years old and put at the suspect of this case. DUring his interrogation the police offered him a way out. They said if he signed this contract he could go home to his mom. He cooperated and after he signed he was locked up into confinement.
I don't believe that anyone associated with the law and justice system is corrupt. I do believe that some people get so far wrapped up into a case that they feel they just need to put someone behind bars for a case, wether it really be that individual or not who committed the crime. I don't agree with the tatics that law enforcement uses, their choice of words etc. It's comforting to know that regardless if a conviction was a mistake that there are good people out in the world who believe someone is innocent. They fight for that person's right and do what they can to free them.
terms: evidence, innocent, conviction, law, justice system, law enforcement, DNA
DNA evidence plays a crucial role in the evidence and conviction of a suspect guilty of a crime. Unfortunately, many innocent people have been wrongly convicted over the years. With the help of the Innocence Project, some wrongly convicted prisoners have been let free due to DNA testing. It's very tragic for both victims (the wrongly convicted and the actual victim) to have that person incarcerated for a crime that they did not do.
It's unfortunate that the law enforcement can prompt a suspect to admit to a crime they did not do out of fear. The four boys from Chicago was an example of the power and fear placed on them from law enforcement to falsely confess to a crime they did not commit. If DNA testing would have been done right away, the truth would have been found.
Ronald Cotton spent over a decade in prison for a crime that he did not commit, but continued to be found guilty. If it wasn't for the development of DNA testing, he might still be incarcerated to this day.
Through many technological advances, it is still shocking to know that there are many prisoners serving time for something that they did not do. If DNA is not present, how can justice be served to these individuals? It's a sad thing to think of.
Although it has been the pain of many wrongly accused and the victims of the crimes, fortunately some have learned from the mistakes made by law enforcement and judicial systems in the past. This does not mean that it is all solved or will be solved in the future, but it at least makes people more aware of different possibilities and that the Innocence Project can continue to grow and that the message of the wrongfully incarcerated can become heard.
terms: evidence, conviction, DNA, victims, incarcerated, law enforcement, judicial system
By studying both the Innocence Project and the findings about DNA in this portion, I have been stunned by the magnitude of people that have been wrongfully convicted with science that is supposed to be "foolproof". While DNA evidence is usually a pretty reliable way to convict those off horrendous crimes, it can also make life altering changes for those who are wrongly convicted.
The police force used behind both of the cases that I studied was sort of horrific, and also made me question the character behind law enforcement. I believe that too often police may abuse the authority that they have, and it lives civilians at a loss because they have no authority. If a case goes to court and its a police man's word against the civilan, the civilian usually will not win. To me, our society holds our law enforcement to the highest of standards and we put our utmost trust in their judgement and with their actions. This display of behavior made by the law enforcement in the two cases in this cast was a despicable representation of how law enforcement should use their authority, and also a poor representation of citizens of the United States.
I think that many people would question the dependability of the justice system after hearing this tape, and it makes me wonder if the justice system relies on facts as much as it is portrayed to be.
Overall I felt that this portion of the class was a very big eye opener, and it gave me a rounder look at the justice system.
There are always stories of people that are incarcerated that are trying to prove their innocence, however I was unaware of just how many people could be telling the truth because I tend to just think they are trying to avoid jail time, or find a loop hole in the legal system. Before this assignment I was not aware that numerous states had an ‘innocence project’ to help those who are wrongfully convicted, I naively thought that once a person goes to prison the others no longer try and assists them. However, it was enlightening to learn that it is a political policy that uses DNA and forensic evidence to help overturn wrongful convictions, and help set innocent people free with the hopes to prevent future wrongful convictions from occurring.
I was unsure what to expect when entering the website, whether it was going to be only horror stories of innocent people going to prison and losing years of their freedom due to a hiccup in the system, however I was surprised that it was so easy to navigate as well as informational. I was interested in how it got started and learned that it was founded at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in 1992. I was surprised when the site stated that since its beginning, only twenty short years ago, it has been able to free 292 former prisoners, and 17 who were previously sentenced to death. The fact that one organization can save so many lives through proving the legal system wrong was very impressive.
I was curious as to how many inmates write to them, expressing their wrongful convictions and how they decide which inmates to represent. Considering the fact that there are so many in the United States prison system, I expected that more than only 3,000 would write to them each year, but the fact that at any time they were examining anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 cases that they may represent was extensive. It must be stressful to have to decide whom one would choose to help, when so many are pleading for assistance.
Another interesting tab in the site was the one that gave explanations for the causes of wrongful convictions. It states that there are multiple factors that may help explain why innocent people go to jail for crimes they did not commit. The first one was misidentification through eyewitness testimony, and after reading Picking Cotton and learning about the errors that can occur through encoding, storing, and retrieving memory, I can understand that this occurs a lot more often then people tend to think. Another reasoning was improper forensic evidence, such as using shoe prints as physical proof, even though it had not been scientifically evaluated as a useful way to identify a suspect. One that was difficult for me to grasp was wrongful confessions, it seems unlikely that a person would admit to a crime that they did not commit, however due to the stressful environment of an interrogation room and constant questioning by detectives, or not seeing a way to persuade them of one’s innocence, making a confession may seem like the only way to put an end to the situation. The one that most surprised me was misconduct in the police department, it seems hard to believe since they are the ones that are responsible for protecting our freedom. However, sometimes they can lose sight of what’s most important and focus solely on getting a conviction, especially for high profile crimes or ones that gain a lot of media attention. Another reason that was given was due to informants that testified against a suspect in the trial, and is often doing it for reasons that are not made known to the jury. The last reason was because of poor defense teams, which seemed like the easiest of me to understand. The fact of the matter is that the majority of those that are incarcerated are poor are do not have a way to pay the amounts that good defense attorneys demand for their services. Most get state appointed attorneys to defend them, and although they are educated in the legal system, that does not mean that they are invested in winning the case or put everything they have. They are also not given the resources that may be needed to prove one’s innocence.
This was an interesting site, that allowed me to get informed about the fact that innocent people are incarcerated due to problems in the legal system. The Innocence Project is an impressive organization that does just put blame on the legal system but offers a way to inform people and help them to assist in the project by making connections and donations. It is important for others to know that not all inmates deserve their sentences, and some even deserve freedom.
Terms: The Innocence Project, legal system, DNA, convictions, encoding, storing, retrieving, memory, eyewitness testimony, defense lawyers, informants, police officers, interrogation, confession
I really believe in everything I've read/listened to in the last couple of blogs. I truly believe that innocent people should be freed and I love that their using old cases that haven't been solved yet! They stated that just one lab takes on over 500 cases a month to be solved with DNA testing!
The case that really spoke to me was the one with the potential cancer patient. They were told they had cancer because of the original tissue found in the case and when they went in to have an organ or tissue removed, the pathologist looking into it found that there was actually no cancer found in the tissue!
An officer in this recording actually brought up how he reviewed a case that he had actually originally worked on. There was a cigarette butt that they collected in 1985 that they couldn't do much with then. But when they opened the case back up, the DNA on the cigarette butt was perfectly preserved. The DNA was then run through the database but didn't say what the final verdict was.
Overturning these cases is actually bringing up things that the police force have actually done to get the cases over with. The police have coerced witnesses to say that a particular individual was the perpetrator when in reality it might have been someone else or they could simply not recall what the actual identity of the perpetrator was. Some corrupt officers can actually convince people to come in and say that they witnessed crime to pin certain crimes on people that they didn't like.
I earnestly hope that more programs like this will be implemented so that innocent people that have been convicted can be set free. And I honestly hope that police abuse and coercion of the witnesses will subside because of all of these cases being overturned.
I really believe in everything I've read/listened to in the last couple of blogs. I truly believe that innocent people should be freed and I love that their using old cases that haven't been solved yet! They stated that just one lab takes on over 500 cases a month to be solved with DNA testing!
The case that really spoke to me was the one with the potential cancer patient. They were told they had cancer because of the original tissue found in the case and when they went in to have an organ or tissue removed, the pathologist looking into it found that there was actually no cancer found in the tissue!
An officer in this recording actually brought up how he reviewed a case that he had actually originally worked on. There was a cigarette butt that they collected in 1985 that they couldn't do much with then. But when they opened the case back up, the DNA on the cigarette butt was perfectly preserved. The DNA was then run through the database but didn't say what the final verdict was.
Overturning these cases is actually bringing up things that the police force have actually done to get the cases over with. The police have coerced witnesses to say that a particular individual was the perpetrator when in reality it might have been someone else or they could simply not recall what the actual identity of the perpetrator was. Some corrupt officers can actually convince people to come in and say that they witnessed crime to pin certain crimes on people that they didn't like.
I earnestly hope that more programs like this will be implemented so that innocent people that have been convicted can be set free. And I honestly hope that police abuse and coercion of the witnesses will subside because of all of these cases being overturned.
This broadcast does a great job of documenting the recent advancements in DNA evidence and the saving power that it can hold for wrongly convicted individuals. One story in particular really caught my attention in the first few minutes. An officer that was working on one of these DNA evidence appeal cases and discovered that the case that he was working on was the very same one that he had been assigned to 20 years earlier on his first day on the force. A single cigarette butt that he had sealed in an evidence bag so long ago held perfectly preserved DNA evidence that set the wrongly accused individual. The stories that are documented are just shocking because they really make you question the legal system that can send innocent people to life in prison or even the death penalty. On the other hand though, the situation is improving with new advances with the "perfect evidence", due in large part to the Innocence Projects.
One aspect to cases of false imprisonment that I had not previously considered was that of intentional framing by the police. A case that was covered in this broadcast was that of a young female medical student who was raped and killed. After a few days with no leads, the police department was under tremendous pressure from the community to make some arrests. They pinned the crime on four young black men and forced them to sign confessions. They were sentenced to life in prison. In cases like this, the officers who knowingly sent these innocent kids to prison would have to cover their tracks well, meaning they would have to try whatever they could to make sure that they stay behind bars. They were finally able to win their appeal after 15 years in prison, but only through some significant strokes of luck.
While it is surly great progress to have programs like the Innocence Project in place, these stories of the wrongly imprisoned are indicative of serious flaws in the legal system. These are examples of tremendous injustice and it is frightening to know that there are many innocent people behind bars right now.